1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoacoustic imaging method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various imaging methods for imaging information on the inside of a living body (subject body) are known. Of these, the photoacoustic tomography described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H06-296612 has been attracting attention because the photoacoustic tomography is a method capable of non-invasively acquiring a tomographic image without any risk of exposure to radiation. With the photoacoustic tomography, a probe beam is irradiated from a local surface spot of a subject body to be observed, the magnitude of the acoustic wave generated by the irradiated beam in the inside of the subject body (photoacoustic signal intensity) is measured and the results of the measurement are processed for imaging.
Mienkina M P, Friedrich C-S, Hensel K, Gerhardt N C, Hofmann M, Schmitz G: Evaluation of Ferucarbotran (Resovist®) as a photoacoustic Contrast Agent, Biomed Tech 2009; 54:83-88 reports the results obtained by observing the photoacoustic signals of a contrast agent containing iron oxide particles for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) apparatus.
On the other hand, G. Kim, S. W. Huang, M. O'Donnell, R. Agayan, K. Day, M. Day, R. Kopelman and S. Ashkenazi, “Indocyanine Green embedded PEBBLEs as a Contrast Agent for photoacoustic Imaging”, Journal of Biomedical Optics 12 (4) 044020 July/August (2007) reports the results obtained by preparing silica nano particles containing a dye by means of a sol-gel technique and observing the photoacoustic signals from them.